


i ain't afraid of no ghost

by brella



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Coda, Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 20:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3394523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brella/pseuds/brella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's nothing quite like vanquishing a centuries-old rage ghost together to start you down the long road to friendship with one of your mortal enemies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i ain't afraid of no ghost

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by anon on Tumblr and posted [there](http://caseyblevins.co.vu/post/111441663450/if-you-would-be-so-kind-and-if-you-have-the-time) originally! Takes place right after the end of "Northwest Mansion Mystery." (Or "Noir," depending.)
> 
> I'm so happy these two were cute. I'm so happy my arbitrary decision to secretly ship Dipper/Pacifica (as much as you can ship twelve-year-olds) wound up not being so arbitrary. I am no longer living in the garbage.

There are three things Dipper has learned in the last half hour. First, that Old Man McGucket does a mean solitary Distressed Do-Si-Do. Second, that it is  _way_  harder in practice than in theory to remove a glue gun from a dress made out of dyed pink feathers (thanks for that update, Mabel). Third, that Northwest Manor is, for lack of a better word, big. 

Like,  _really_  big. Like, he’s surprised more of it isn’t haunted, big. Like, he couldn’t contain his mounting curiosity and subtly inched away from the party and the watchful eye of Preston Northwest (which probably isn’t  _entirely_  fair, as those eyes are currently leaking privileged tears about the  _riffraff_  and the  _carpet_ ) to look for secret passageways without permission, big. What? He deserves a  _little_  bit of a reward for getting turned into a wood statue for five minutes tonight. A reward that isn’t the bribe money Pacifica offered him to cover up the great scandal of her  _hugging him_. 

That’s not important right now. What’s important is figuring out whether or not the fireplace in this random study he found has a secret button hidden in the mantle somewhere. The Sibling Brothers would be proud of ol’ Dip. 

“What are you  _doing_?” a voice cuts in from behind him. 

Dipper  _totally_  doesn’t leap a foot in the air and yelp like a dog that got accidentally stepped on or anything; he’s tougher than that. So maybe he does a little  _hop_ , or something, and a small, inconsequential, startled  _throat-clearing_. 

“Pacifica!” he yells, whirling around. Is this what the villains feel like when they get caught trying to steal the queen’s jewels? Because that’s definitely not what he was trying to do! “I wasn’t stealing your jewels!”

Pacifica wrinkles her nose. “My  _what_? Oh. Yeah, they’re not in here.” She waves one gloved hand dismissively, tossing her hair for punctuation, probably. “Not that I care what kind of nutjob stuff you do in your spare time, but in case you hadn’t noticed, the world’s best party is  _still_  going on  _right_ outside.”

“Oh! Yeah, no, definitely, I’ll be right back there, I just—”

“Please don’t tell me you were looking for the bathroom. Because it’s clearly marked ‘W.C.’ and it’s the other way.”

“Wow, W.C., that’s… snobby,” Dipper says with a grin. “Is your family even real, Pacifica?”

She gets a funny look on her face, or maybe it’s just the lighting and the make-up and the newfound fact that she has feelings. Her brow wrinkles a little and she steps into the room, fidgeting with the fingers of her gloves. 

“That’s a really good question,” she mutters. 

Dipper’s about to open his mouth and say something, but then it—that bizarrely human expression, the second one he’s seen tonight—is gone, and she’s back to looking aloof, even though he knows better by the mud on her shoes and the purposefully untouched spot of chocolate fondue on her dress. 

“Anyway, look, I know what you’re after, and it’s not in here,” she says. “The closest secret passageway is in my parents’ room and it just goes to that stupid panic room. Winston—our butler—said there  _might_  be some others, though…” She pauses, looking for a second like she’s considering something, all squinted eyes and one finger tapping her chin, and then she meets his eye, followed by a half-smile. “You… you wanna go look for some?”

“ _Do_  I?!” Dipper cries elatedly,  _too loud again augh Dipper get it together man_ , throwing his hands in the air. “Defin—”

His brain trips over something and skids to a halt, suddenly. He’s acutely aware of how much his arms and legs hurt from all the  _running_  and  _crawling_  and  _being wood_  stuff, and Pacifica looks pretty tired, too—and he gets it. You can’t be that awesome in a single night and  _not_  be tired.

Not that he’s gonna say that, or anything. Not that Pacifica’s awesome. She’s adequate. On the right day. 

“You know, uh, actually…” He scratches sheepishly at the back of his head, glancing down at his toes instead of at her puzzled stare. “I’m kinda bushed. But, um… I dunno if you heard, but they’re doing a 48-hour marathon of  _Ghost Harassers_ , and… it should still be going. If you’re, uh—”

“What?” Pacifica shouts. “I  _love_   _Ghost Harassers_! The second one has the  _coolest_ —” She catches herself a little too late, cheeks flaring with indignant embarrassment, and clears her throat, ducking her head. “I mean, uh, yeah, whatever. I’m not really into nerd movies, but if you  _want_. I  _guess_  I owe you for tonight.”

Dipper’s too bewildered to even bitterly affirm that.

“I’m not really in the mood to hang around the party anyway.” She cups one hand around the side of her mouth, whispering, “That Mayor guy keeps mistaking me for someone named  _Ariel_? It’s weird. Anyway… the TV room’s just down the hall.” One side of her mouth quirks up hesitantly. “We’ve got surround sound.”   

After doing that  _stupid horrible thing_  where he starts laughing for too long, Dipper exclaims, “You had me at surround sound!” 

“That was the very last thing I said, Pines.”

“Yep.”

It’s kind of boring watching  _Ghost Harassers_  after you’ve beaten a bloodthirsty ghost together, because you start noticing all of the inaccuracies, and you wonder how they managed to make it seven movies without becoming ghosts themselves. But it’s still fun. 

And Dipper’s not even just saying that because of Pacifica’s gourmet popcorn with like herbes de Provence and goat butter in it. It’s… really, really fun. 


End file.
